Colour By Numbers [Remastered] - Culture Club

Advantages: Pure, unfussy pop
Disadvantages: Karma Chameleon!

HISTORY ------------- Going through my old vinyl collection I pulled out the first album I ever owned: Culture Club's "Colour By Numbers". This was Boy George & co's second album, the follow up to 1982's "Kissing To Be Clever". Looking back it would have been easy for this album to fall flat on its face after Boy George's sudden appearance on the scene in 1982. The record-buying public are a fickle bunch and an image-led band in a time of image-led ...
...It is to their credit that their talent and George's tactical nous ensured they quelled such fears. "Colour By Numbers" spawned four hits in the UK, went on to sell 9m worldwide and broke the band in the USA. It was released in 1983 and after twenty years since I last gave it a spin, here's what I found. KARMA CHAMELEON ----------------------------- Everyone knows this track! The harmonica intro, the uptempo beat all the way through and the video ... Read review

Advantages: Some good numbers
Disadvantages: Mostly pap

The most remarkable aspect of Culture Club’s rapid rise to fame was the trasnformation of the group’s lead singer, Boy george, from an emblem of London’s bizarre transsexual demi monde into an all round family favourite. His appeal rapidly took him from the style conscious pages of ID magazine to the cover of Woman. Previously, male pop artists with a penchant for cosmetics and female clothing appealed to a marginal, mainly student audience. their ...
...middle class family life. But in 1983, Boy George, self confessed bisexual in lipstick and frocks, was basking in the sort of widespread affection reserved for the tame and unthreatening. The band’s drummer, Jon Moss, was for several years a lover of George’s. the rest of Culture Club were guitarist Roy hay and bass player Mikey Craig. Their artistic and commerical peak was with the Colur By Numbers album in 1983. The success was due in no small ... Read review